How do you test an AV

I know many people test their AV's themselves rather than trialing them out for a long time waiting for something to happen.

The only place I've known is eicar and maybe a few others from the past I can't remember. I'd like to start testing my av enough to realize if it's effective or not. With eicar, it seems that majority if not all avs can detect it by default, so the test doesn't seem too helpful.

So what methods, tools, sites do you guys use do to determine a successful test/trial of an AV product?

I leave the testing to people/websites/magazines that have much more insight and capability than I do. When trialing an AV or suite I consider its performance, usability, support, design, and how well it settles with my system (conflicts, etc). EICAR is all I use just to ensure I haven't set something incorrectly.

Only having around two virus threats in the past decade on my personal machines allows me to focus on choosing what I prefer over whatever detection rate I could conjure up, or even a malware tester could conjure up. Even when installing security software for the computer illiterate, the reasons above tend to outweigh detection rates.

For me, detection rates only play a pivotal role in my company's network where it's very important. The methods we use when deciding in that situation also include taking in to account the mentioned points while using a testbed machine with trial software and running the shady site of the internet. How the software handles that is taken into consideration.

You really won't be doing yourself any favors by running tests yourself. All you will be doing is testing to see if the software is working. It will tell you nothing about its quality (unless you're a malware writer you can't test the AV with zero-day baddies).